Tag Archives: chocolate desserts

It is certainly s’mores season! I love all the outdoor mountain summer activities. Camping, hiking, hanging out by the lake, campfires, tinfoil dinners and of course S’MORES!! I am not usually one for marshmallow, but when you toast it up and it gets all gooey and the perfect golden brown color. And then you add melty chocolate and crispy graham crackers and you have the perfect summer treat!

My first foray into s’mores baked goods were a few pans of s’mores brownies. This hit 2 birds with one stone. I have never made homemade brownies before so I wanted to give it a shot. And of course I had to elevate it and add some s’more elements. And as I was attempting to lightly toast them in the oven under the broiler they caught on FIRE……god I have never been so scared! Thankfully they were incredibly easy to extinguish.

Needless to say when I decided to make a cupcake version I went with a meringue frosting and lightly torched them with a handheld kitchen torch. I’ve had this torch for several years and I have only just barely mastered using it!

Once again I am back at it with my all time favorite cupcake recipe! If you haven’t tried this one yet you are missing out. They are both light and fluffy and incredibly moist! The filling for the cupcakes is the perfect Hershey Chocolate filling you would need to have a genuine s’more experience. I decided to go with a graham cracker crust instead of just crumbling some on top. Make sure that you don’t add too much butter otherwise you will end up with a greasy mess.

Well here we go!

Makes 24 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

1 Box Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix

1 Package Hersheys Instant Chocolate Pudding

1/2 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

1 Cup Sour Cream

4 Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

6 oz Mini Chocolate Chips

Crust:

1 sleeve Graham Crackers (8 full crackers), crushed into fine crumbs

1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

2 Tbsp Butter, softened

Filling:

3 oz Hershey’s Milk Chocolate

8 Tbsp Salted Butter

Frosting:

4 Egg Whites

1 Cup Granulate Sugar

1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

Pinch of Salt

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Make the filling first. In a small sauce pan melt the butter and chocolate over medium heat. As soon as all the chocolate has melted remove from heat. Mix well and let chill in the fridge while you prepare the cupcakes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Use your hands to mix all the ingredients together until you have well incorporated the butter and the crumbs slightly stick together when pressed.

Line your cupcake pan with paper liners. Press the graham crackers in the bottom of the liners. Bake for 5 minutes. Let cool while mixing the cupcake batter.

To make the cupcakes add the cake mix and pudding into a stand mixer and mix on low. Add oil and milk. Mix well. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream. Mix well for 2 minutes scraping down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the chocolate chips. It’s very important to make sure that the sides of the bowl are scraped down because if the batter isn’t evenly mixed your cupcakes will have inconsistent texture and bake.

Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely before filling and frosting.

Remove the filling from the fridge and scrape it out into a medium mixing bowl. Use an electric hand mixer to beat it for about 2 minutes until it has become light and creamy. Use a piping bag and filling tip to fill the cupcakes with the chocolate mixture.

To make the frosting.

In a double boiler or place your metal stand mixer bowl over a medium pot with a few inches of water. Add eggs, sugar, salt and cream of tartar into the bowl. Over a medium heat whisk together the ingredients. It will start to turn syrupy. Once your mixture reaches between 120 and 140 degrees remove from heat. Using a hand mixer or your stand mixer beat the frosting for 7-10 minutes until stiff peaks form. Make sure that your peaks don’t move at all. Occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla and beat for an extra 30 seconds.

In the season of pumpkin spice everything I thought I would kick off the season with a nice rich chocolatey dessert. These cupcakes are decadent and moist and fluffy and cakey and just plain amazing! I made them earlier this year with sort of a spring theme, but I figured they would be a perfect fall treat!

I took some to work today to share with my awesome team and they got rave reviews! Yay!

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 Box Devils Food Cake Mix

1 Package Jello Instant Chocolate Pudding

1 Cup Sour Cream

4 Eggs

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 Cup Milk

6 oz Chocolate Chips

Frosting:

1 Cup Butter, room temperature

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Cup Caramel Melts

2 Tbsp Heavy Cream

3 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp table salt

1 Tbsp Coarse Salt

To make Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make the cupcakes add the cake mix and pudding into a stand mixer and mix on low. Add oil and eggs. Mix well. Add milk, vanilla and sour cream. Mix well for 2 minutes scraping down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the chocolate chips. It’s very important to make sure that the sides of the bowl are scraped down because if the batter isn’t evenly mixed your cupcakes will have inconsistent texture and bake.

Line cupcake pan with cupcake papers. Fill each cup about 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

To make Frosting:

In a stand mixer beat the butter until smooth. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix completely. In a microwave safe bowl melt the caramel with the cream in 30 second increments stirring in between each round until completely melted. Slowly add caramel with the mixer on low. Add table salt. Slowly add the rest of the powdered sugar until you have a light and fluffy frosting. I had to put my frosting in the fridge for just 5 minutes to get the right texture. Pipe frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle coarse sea salt on top of each cupcake.